Auto Dealer Monthly, Q4 2018

30 auto dealer today Q4 2018 F i x e d O p s G ILLUSTRATION GETTYIMAGES COM INTARARIT By Bill Wittenmyer Generating revenue isnt always about getting more work and more customers Its equally important to identify where youre losing revenue Fixing the four most common revenue leaks in your service department could add tens of thousands of dollars if not hundreds of thousands to your bottom line every month 1 Wasted Tech Hours Every time a technician walks to the parts counter to order a part waits for it or walks back later to pick it up they burn about 10 to 15 minutes of their workday If they do it four times that adds up to an hour of lost technician revenue per day If you have 10 technicians losing 20 hours of revenue per month that adds up to 200 hours of technician time that you are not billing How much is that worth to your business Do the math and youll quickly figure out that its wise to invest in technology that connects your service advisors to your technicians to your parts department With the right shop tool integrated with your DMS you can set up alert notification systems that will automatically alert the parts counter what parts are needed when the tech is assigned the RO An internal chat system is also effective for sending messages back and forth between technicians and parts The tech sends a message requesting parts and the parts counter pulls them and then alerts the tech when theyre ready 2 Declined Services Most stores dont identify or monetize their declined work op codes This is the first and most critical step to recovering revenue from unsold services If you dont know what to go after you cant create a strategy to go after it With a mobile check in and multipoint inspection process when the service advisor makes recommendations and the customer declines the advisor must check either Yes or No This simple automated prompt results in a massive increase in the logging of declined services A store with manual logging sees an average of 7 of ROs logged with declined services Stores with a mobile process see an average 30 of ROs logged with declined services So what would that mean to your bottom line In a larger than average dealership you might discover that you have 400000 in declined service work every month and you might be able to bring back 100000 of that revenue Mobile tablet technology can help Provide visual proof by taking photos or videos of worn parts then text them to customers to increase job approval rates Additionally use a multichannel strategy to follow up with declined service work Dont place the burden entirely on your service advisors shoulders Today much of the declined service follow up process can be automated Service advisors can record a friendly service reminder that can be automatically dropped into the customers voicemail at predetermined time intervals following each customers visit Meanwhile have BDC agents reach out to connect in person One highly effective approach is to create a report with the top five safety op codes and prioritize those first Incorporate a sense of urgency into your follow up scripts In addition to phone calls follow up with personalized emails and texts Send visual proof again Send a coupon as an incentive Eventually your cus Recapturing lost revenue is the first step toward fixed ops profitability Use this four step process to reduce or eliminate wasted tech hours declined services inefficient scheduling and lost tire sales 4 Service Revenue Leaks You Need to Fix